Le Quang Liem named top seed at HDBank int’l chess tournament

NDO – The 2018 HDBank International Chess Tournament will be held in Hanoi for the first time from March 10 to 15, with reigning champion Le Quang Liem being named the top seed for his Elo rating of 2,736.

The announcement was made by the organising committee at a press briefing held in the capital city on March 8.

Liem is one of the two super grandmasters participating in this year’s competition, alongside the Chinese no. 2 seed, Wang Hao (Elo 2,713).

The six-day event will gather more than 270 chess players representing 21 countries and territories around the world, 125 competitors of whom come from nations with a strong tradition of chess competition and development, such as Russia, Germany, China, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

The participants will battle it out in two sections, including the Masters (for men rated 2,100 or above, and women rated 2,000 or above) and the Challengers category (for those rated below 2,100). The top male scorer in the Masters category will receive a cash prize of US$15,000, while the best female player will get US$5,000.

Addressing the press briefing, Le Thanh Trung, Deputy Director General of HDBank, the tournament's main sponsor, pledged to do his utmost for the success of the 2018 competition, while continuing to champion Vietnamese chess in particular, and Vietnamese sport as a whole, in the time ahead.